Laser imagers are widely used in the medical imaging field to produce visual representations on film of digital medical images. Laser imagers typical include a media supply system, a feeder system, an exposure system, a processing system, an output system (e.g., output tray, sorter), and a transport system that moves film through the laser imager along a transport path from the media supply system to the output system. The media supply system generally includes a supply of film sheets stacked in one or more cartridges or trays and an extractor or pickup assembly for removing individual sheets from the trays for delivery to the feeder assembly.
When transferring sheets from the pickup assembly to the transport path, it is important that the for the feeder system to properly align the sheets. A sheet that is delivered at an angle (i.e. skewed) and/or laterally misaligned (e.g. off-center) relative to the transport path can cause an image to be improperly produced on the sheet by the exposure system and may result in jams along the transport path. As such, several techniques have been employed by feeder systems to achieve proper film alignment.
One such technique involves transporting a sheet along a curved transport path via a pair of drive rollers. To align the sheet with the transport path, the sheet is passed through the drive rollers and drops to a stationary plate. The stationary plate is positioned at an angle so as to cause the sheet to slide down the stationary plate so that a transverse edge of the sheet contacts a stop. Conventional aligning plates are then actuated to move and laterally align the sheet with the transport path and cause the transverse edge to longitudinally align the sheet with the transport path through contact with the stop.
Laser imagers have typically separated the exposure the exposure and processing functions so that exposure of the sheet is completed prior to processing or development. However, in order to provide faster time to first print and to provide increased throughput, some laser imagers are now configured to begin processing a sheet while it is still being exposed, a so-called processing-while-imaging system. While the above described technique is generally effective at aligning sheets, dropping and sliding the sheet along the stationary plate is time consuming, and due to static charges, the sheet may not slide freely on the plate and, thus, not properly align with the stop.
While such systems may have achieved certain degrees of success in their particular applications, there is a need to provide an improved system and method for registering film, particularly for a processing-while-imaging type imaging apparatus.